There are three things worth remembering about Bb. Pilipinas 2005. First, it was the only edition where a candidate – Wendy Valdez – was crowned Bb. Pilipinas Tourism first and then declared as 1st Runner-Up during the official announcement proceedings. Second, the first recognized national titleholder who crossed over and won another crown – Bb. Pilipinas World – was here. She is Miss Philippines Earth 2001 Carlene Aguilar. And lastly, it was the batch that produced the true shining star of the Philippines in international competitions – not just for the years 2000-2009 – but including two previous decades – the 80s and the 90s (do remember that Miss International 1979 Melanie Marquez was the last big winner before 2005). When Precious Lara Quigaman was crowned Bb. Pilipinas International 2005, she eventually became the country’s fourth Miss International winner in Japan.

The geopolitical and economic background of the two decades you are comparing is obvious. The years 2000- 2009 is when Trump and Telemundo owns MUO and the attempt to excite the Latin American market saw the playing field favoring the Latinas. Six out of 10 winners in that period are Latinas; if ever a non-Latina wins, her court is composed of all Latinas. What turned the tide in favor of the Philippines in 2010? Suddenly, the Philippines surged as the fastest growing economy in the world, and the global pageant community saw the unbelievably huge Filipino fan base in Las Vegas cheering for Venus Raj. MUO realized the great market potentials of the Philippines, intensifying its business interest when MUO was bought by WME/IMG in 2015. As the country sealed its Newly Industrialized country status from 2010 onwards, MUO kept on energizing the pageant-crazy Filipinos by always ensuring we are in the magic circle, and in fact winning 2 out of 10 editions in the ensuing decade.

Anyway, Carlene was the NUMBER 1 CHOICE among (I think all) the betting sites both in UK & US to win the Miss World crown that year. I believe this reached the attention of Julia and company. Betting is a big business, so the dirty tricks always come in. MW was already accused to have been involved in such dirty business way back in the ’80s. Through public voting, Carlene, of course, made it to the semifinals. ITO NA NAMAN si JULIA & COMPANY, JUDGES (including her) CHOSE the FINALISTS. SO TAOB na naman ang Pilipinas dahil si South Korea ang pinili ni Julia. Mutya ng Pilipinas-World ANTONETTE BALLESTEROS said in a letter sent (I think to Ricky Lo) long time ago that we cannot win the Miss World crown BECAUSE MW IS HIGHLY POLITICIZED. And the Philippines is not a favorite country by the MW organizers. Megan Young was just so lucky that Julia liked her. PERO BALIK na naman tayo sa dating KALAKARAN because the Philippine Government refused to host the Miss World in the Philippines in 2014. So ang dapat gawin ni ALV is IPAKAIN NIYA sa BUNGANGA ni JM ang milyun-milyong pera. He, he, he…

From the video, Lara exudes the unmistakable aura of confidence in the way she moves and talks. Why she was not chosen for MU contest is a bit perplexing. The height perhaps? But MU contest is known to crown 5’5″ reps, certainly taller than the average American women’s height of 5’4″. Lara at 5’6″ is certainly tall by the world standard. Good that the MI judges saw what the BPCI judges did not.

@Scorg i think height played a major factor why Lara did not get BBP-U. Miss Universe at this time and all throughout the Trump Era (1996-2014) never crowned a winner shorter than 5’7″. I was actually surprised to know that Alicia Machado and Zuleyka Rivera are only as tall as Olivia Culpo and Brooke Lee at 5’7″. BBP also never crowned and sent reps to Miss Universe below 5″7″ during the same time frame.

What I’m waiting for is the post for BBP2008 where the infamous lines:

“No I don’t feel any pressure right now….My family’s role is very important, because there was, they was the one who’s very haha oh I’m so sorry. My family, my family, oh my God…I’m so sorry, I told you that I’m so confident. Eto, umm wait…hahahahaha. Umm, sorry guys because this was really my first pageant ever because I’m only 17 y/o. And I did no expect that I came from 1 of tough 10, umm so but I said that my family is the most important persons in my life… thank you!”

@ Adrienne I am reminded of that episode in one edition of ANTM. The contestant, a black girl in her late teens, after confessing she missed her family too much, backed out there and then. Once she had left the stage, Tyra Banks LITERALLY TORE her photo in front of everybody.

Mr. Tinio, let’s see your post on TEEN queens like Kathleen Paton, Simone Bornilla, and, of course, once more for the verbally-colorful Mimilanie Marquez (who was 15 when she won MI). 🙂

Gionna’s win in that year’s batch was always perplexing to me and rewatching these videos again just reminded me why. She can’t walk and her styling was so off. In fact, she looked a 1000x better in MU, thank goodness. It is amazing that she won Miss Photogenic (well, we all know why she also won that same award at MU2005) and Best in Evening Gown over Precious Lara and Carlene. Precious Lara was just so exquisite and regal. I had a feeling back then that they were going to give World to Carlene so I was rooting for Precious Lara to get Universe…. but of course, that dream went out the window when Gionna won both EG and SS awards. The judges obviously saw something in Gionna that was not very apparent to me. Thankfully, Pecious Lara went to International and won that most-deserved International crown.

Wendy Valdez was the “irritant” to Bruce Quebral during the inaugural Biig Brother Filipinas, no?

@ Pierro Rocco Both are UP alums, no?

BIG mistake to have Richard Gutierrez, Paolo Bediones, and Richard Gomez all together as hosts.

I remember my then-officemates talking about Precious Lara’s appearance in the last Episode of “Encantadia” as the “tagapagmana” daughter of Iza Calzado’s “sangre” and Dingdong Dantes’ character. Or was that Jennylin Mercado? Marky Cielo rode a flying dragon as the closing shot…..

NOOOOO FLOR! SI BRUCE QUEBRAL LANG ANG SCHOOLMATE MO. HE is ALSO AN IDIOT for taking her into his (legal) life. I HATE THAT GIRL SO MUCH. THAT WENDY VALDEZ… F___! MABUTI HIWALAY NA SILA NI BRUCE QUEBRAL NGAYON. I THINK the BPP had already sensed before the finals that SHE IS AN ATTITUDE GIRL (NORMAN ANOTHER REMINDER TO ALAIZA MALINAO – MAGPAKABAIT SIYA). See, lumabas talaga sa PBB ang REAL UGALI, so GOODBYE AGAD sa SHOWBIZ.

JUST ONE THING I DON’T LIKE ABOUT QUIGAMAN. SHE HAS that TENDENCY TO BE RIGHTEOUS. NAKIKIALAM SA BELIEFS & PRACTICES ng IBANG SEKTA, SO kinuyog siya ng mga netizen in 2015 during the PAPAL visit.

In my life, I have made really good friends with FEU alums. They possess this EASY warmth, not contrived at all! UST alums are very nice folks, too.

Alums of MapuaIT (now Malayan College of ST, right?), AdamsonU, and TIP were COOL.

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Hi! Norman here. When I'm not working, I spend most of my free time planning on daily blogs. If you will notice, I always make sure that a fresh topic comes out everyday - not an easy thing to do but it's all good. Thanks for dropping by and enjoy the visit!

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